Follow-up for Funny Friends for four

Saturday was long and hot, as the days have tended to be lately. After I got home from soccer, showered, recovered, ate, and napped, I took care of some stuff around the house and decided to run up to the store and see if I could get a game going. I took the same bag I had hauled to Dan's the night before.

Steve, Tim, and myself headed over to Taco Bell for some fuel. When we returned, Tim, Jerod, and Gigi all expressed interest in Funny Friends, so we gave it a go. I thought it was a pretty good sign that Tim was interested in playing a second time in two days, and that I was actually kind of anxious to see how it would change. I'm not one of those people that likes to play a different game all the time - I like to play a game a few times to get a feel for it before I set it aside.

I should say a little more about FF, since I failed to adequately describe it in the last entry. It's co-designed by the designer of the popular Power Grid, Friedemann Friese (sp?). It's sort of like the card game version of the Sims. Each player goes through life, working toward life goals by meeting characteristic requirements. Characteristics are altered via life events, which players get through auction. The first player to achieve five life goals (and/or mega-goals) wins.

It was nice to see some changes from the night before. There was more competitive bidding - or just bidding to make people pay. There are a lot of situations limiting competition in this game, which is one of the drawbacks of the auction element. Sometimes, nobody else has the requirements, and just can't compete. Other times, nobody else can take the effects, and they just let you have something. Depending on the life goals, you could be encouraged to compete or to ignore each other. In this case, we had some heavy competition a couple times, including one bid that Jerod won at six, which would have won me the game.

Another difference in this second play was use of call tokens. Nobody called to force someone else into an event, but we all used most of our tokens to get in on other peoples' effects. This actually made the game more exciting, as it increased the networks of connection and strange circumstances between players. I made a big mistake in this game, passing up the "totally wasted" mega-goal when I could have played it, and instead taking a life event I needed for two goals in my hand, which I could have, of course, waited on. That probably would have given me the game. As it was, Tim played his fifth life goal with me at four and ready to play my fifth goal on the next turn.

My life was a little different this time - I was profoundly impacted by my bible study group, later becoming married to the sweetheart that I met there. An accident early in life apparently led to a painkiller addiction, which haunted me and caused some bizarre twists, about which I wrote my memoirs. I had a variety of relationships and life-changing events, and ended up becoming a monk after the shock of a strange relationship. Unfortunately, the donning of the frock kept me from completing my fifth goal in hand - relationship - but, I was planning on winning with the mega-goal, as Tim was so close. Too bad he beat me to it.

I still feel I have some aspects of the rules ironed out, but I think this one will go over pretty well with Kristins' friends, if we have a chance to get it on the table.

GG, GL